Former nurse from Weymouth, 99, is honored in new way by Norwell group. Here's how

WEYMOUTH − Ninety-nine-year-old Betty Beecher was overwhelmed to receive a Nightingale pin honoring her 40 years of service as a nurse. And the timing was perfect − she was here to enjoy it.

Traditionally, Nightingale tributes have been presented annually by the American Nursing Association to the families of deceased or "fallen" nurses at their graves.

The NVNA and Hospice in Norwell, which has cared for a number of nurses at the end of their careers, recently introduced a new approach: honoring nurses with a Nightingale pin while they are still alive. The pin is named after Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Beecher is one of the Norwell agency's first recipients.

Their message to Betty: Be proud of the work you have done, the person you are and the difference you have made.

"I'd much rather have it when I can enjoy it," Beecher, who is in hospice care, said. Her Nightingale ceremony was held Jan. 13 by the NVNA at the Fairing Way retirement community, where she has lived since 2016.

"It was just so awesome," she said, describing how moved she was to see her 1946 nurse's cap and cape from the former Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Boston on the podium at her presentation.

"I felt so proud of my accomplishments" as they were recounted by NVNA and Hospice nurses, she said. "The whole history was right there. It all flashed through my mind and it was very touching from beginning to end. I was almost in tears."

At age 19, in 1943, Beecher was in the first class of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps − student nurses who took accelerated training and then staffed the nation's civilian and military hospitals during World War II. With a severe nursing shortage on the home front, they were committed to serve until the end of the war.

After the war ended, Beecher remained at the Staten Island Marine Hospital for two years and then went to work for the U.S. Public Health Administration at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Brighton. She met her late husband, Harry, there and left the hospital in 1960 to have her two children in 1961 and 1963.

She later became a nurse in the Braintree schools for several years and finished her career at Armstrong World Industries in Braintree for eight years, retiring in 1982.

"I love nursing," Beecher said Friday in her apartment at Fairing Way.

She had just finished looking through photographs from her nursing career and watched a video that her granddaughter Nicole Orsini, 25, of Boston, made at her Nightingale ceremony. Orsini is a graduate of Boston University, with a major in film, and works for Northern Light Productions in Allston.

The NVNA gave Beecher a Nightingale lapel pin in the shape of a lamp, symbolizing the oil lamps that nurses once carried to reach their patients at night. Pinning ceremonies are a time-honored tradition at many nursing schools and a way of thanking nurses for their service.

Beecher, who has lung disease and is on oxygen, came under the NVNA's care last year. Her nurses had begun questioning the tradition of waiting until nurses had died to honor them with a Nightingale tribute.

The NVNA told Beecher they wanted to remind nurses who sometimes found it difficult to accept care themselves that they deserve the same care they had given to others.

Cindy Getman, a hospice nurse and Beecher's case manager at NVNA and Hospice, spoke at the ceremony about Beecher's career.

After Beecher graduated in 1942 from Rockland High School, Getman said, "she began a journey of passion, persistence and perseverance."

In 1943, she began her nursing training at the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Boston. She soon joined the new U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps and completed her training at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Staten Island. She received her nursing diploma in 1946 and then passed the state boards in Massachusetts, becoming a registered nurse.

Beecher's daughter, Susan Orsini, of Taunton, and her son, Mark, of Braintree, were at the ceremony along with Nicole Orsini.

"My grandmother is an inspiring lady and she has done a lot with her life," Nicole said. "It is nice to see her recognized for what she has done and to hear how she served her country."

After she retired, Beecher worked diligently with other nurses for more than a decade to win more recognition of the role the cadet nurses played in World War II. In her 90s, she made several trips into Boston to locate written records of the Cadet Nurse Corps nurses in the Boston University History of Nursing Archives.

"There wasn't any part of nursing I didn't enjoy," she said. "I was happiest when I was at work."

Remembering Patience Gardner, a kind and spiritual friend

Very sad news came over the weekend about the loss of Patience Gardner, of Duxbury, a retired minister and member of the South Shore YMCA Emilson Branch in Hanover, where she was a daily swimmer and a welcoming presence until health problems slowed her down during the past year.

A warm, outgoing person who always greeted others with a smile and a keen interest in their lives, Patience graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was a minister at Unitarian Universalist parishes in Provincetown and New Bedford before she retired. She was 77 when she died Jan. 3.

Over the past year, as she came back from health setbacks, Patience drew the admiration of many at the Y as she pushed forward with her swimming workouts. "She was a real fighter and had a lot of courage," Barbara Serena, 89, of Norwell said. Patience also had been active at the Old Ship Church in Hingham, where she served on the pastoral care leadership team and enjoyed writing letters and cards of support and encouragement to others. The Rev. Ken Read-Brown, minister of Old Ship until the summer of 2022, led her funeral service Jan. 20 at First Parish in Duxbury.

With a deep spiritual side, she especially enjoyed and found sustenance in nature. Her kindness and sparks of enthusiasm will be missed by her friends and admirers at the Y.

Kudos to the Hingham Historical Society and kind caregivers

Jennifer Davis-Kay, of Arlington, was touched to read about 97-year-old Weymouth resident Angela Corbo, who was able to visit the house in Hingham where her grandfather once lived and which she visited often as a child.

With the help of her caregivers and the staff at the Hingham Historical Society, Angela was able to go back to the house, knock on the door, be welcomed in by the current owner, and later learn more about its history from the historical society.

"I read this article with tears in my eyes," Jennifer emailed. "I think many of us have special memories of our grandparents’ houses, and I was especially moved by the sheer kindness of everyone in the story. How lovely that Angela got to have that experience."

It was an uplifting team effort with shared kindness that made Angela's dream come true.

Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: At 99, former nurse Betty Beecher receives Nightingale pin from NVNA